CUMBERLAND — Five years ago the Allegany County Human Resources Development Commission began looking for a new home for its senior center and Office of Aging. Because of that search, the idea to bring all of HRDC’s programs under one roof came to light and, with Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, the concept became reality.

Courtney Thomas, HRDC executive director, said with the opening of the new facility at 125 Virginia Ave., HRDC is starting anew and looking toward the future of the agency.

“Our goal by housing all of HRDC’s services under one roof will allow us to holistically approach and to better meet the needs of the community and clients they serve,” she said. “With this building, we were also hoping to spark an interest on Virginia Avenue and we are proud to be a leader for the Virginia Avenue revitalization.”

Gary Horowitz, member of the board of directors, said the opening of the new facility marks a new phase in the life of HRDC for serving the people in the community.

“There are nearly two dozen programs through the HRDC to try and meet the needs of our community,” he said. “And all of those taken together display the commitment of HRDC to ensure those who are part of the community that are less fortunate than others get what they need.”

Horowitz said 10 percent of Allegany County residents need the support HRDC provides and those employed by the agency hope they may continue to do so until that vision of no longer needing HRDC services comes to fruition.

“At some point in the future, I hope HRDC can go out of business because everyone in our community will be at a level of income where they are able to provide to their needs,” he said. “But until then we will continue to serve the people in our community who need our services.”

City Councilman Brian Grim said the project has been exciting from the very start and he is “very happy” to see it finally finished.

“This is a foundational stone to the revitalization of Virginia Avenue,” he said. “It is an example of the transition to a more vibrant community here and the potential transformation back to what the avenue can be like.”

Mayor Lee Fiedler said the project is a “great example” of different city, state, county and federal agencies coming together to bring this dream to fruition.

“The new HRDC building, and the revitalization of Virginia Avenue effort, is a landmark to the beginning of change going on down here,” he said. “By bringing one business down here, more businesses are looking to move here. Now we’re looking to bring a restaurant to this area and people are looking at homes down here and looking to fix them up. It’s very exciting and it’s all worked better than we expected.”

U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin also attended the ceremony after visiting the soon-to-be-opened Western Maryland Regional Medical Center on Willowbrook Road and presenting a $737,000 Appalachian Regional Commission grant that will be used toward constructing a new access road to Allegany College of Maryland.

“This really is a special day ... I travel all over Maryland but I don’t get many days like this, but there is something going on here in Cumberland that gives us hope,” he said. “I started at the hospital ... and that’s giving people hope that they will be able to get the best health care here as they can anywhere else in the state. I was over at the college to present an ARC grant check for the new road and that’s giving hope of new jobs coming to the area. And now, with the HRDC building, it is giving hope to people of the community that there are people here who really want to help them.”

Cardin said the day also brought a lot of hope to him as a senator by showing him, even in a bad economic situation, there are people still out there looking to better their community and wanting to help others.

The Grand Masonic Lodge of Maryland also came out to rededicate the cornerstone for the public school that once sat on the same Virginia Avenue spot. The cornerstone is directly beneath the flagpole outside the new HRDC building.

“By rededicating this cornerstone we are symbolically dedicating this building to the service of our citizens,” Deputy Grand Master Stephen Ponzillo said.

Construction of the 19,333-square-foot building began in September 2008 and cost approximately $5 million. It is also the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified building in Allegany County. The new HRDC building was chosen as one of 16 Smart Sites by the Gov. Martin O’Malley administration and the first one to be completed.

Tess Hill can be reached at thill@times-news.com.